Secrets | Percabeth AU

51- Meant to be...

Percy's POV

I stared at the music box. The figures looked so happy. I wish I was stuck in that moment. No tour. No Mark. No Stanford. No jealous feelings. Just Annabeth and I dancing in Coney Island.

I don't understand myself. What was I jealous of? Annabeth gone out with me. Not Mark. At the same time, a part of me thinks that something is going on between them. They understand each other, in things I would be clueless in. They have the same interests, while Annabeth and I are the complete opposite.

Like calls to like, Rachel's voice echoed.

Opposites attract, I thought.

Maybe this was supposed to happen. That Mark is the person who would make Annabeth and I realize that our differences were too much and that we can't make it happen. Maybe this was meant to be...

"Sorry about this." Luke came up to me with a towel and a bucket of water.

I scoffed. "I deserved it. I needed a good punch."

He placed the warm, damp towel on my face and started wiping. I hissed, when it stung. "Stings, huh? That's what happens when you do something dumb," he said, still wiping my face, but with more force.

"You don't have to wipe my face. Let me bleed," I retorted. He slammed the towel into the bucket.

"You know why came back?" I blinked, but my eyes tried to stay shut from exhaustion. "Because I'm tired of running. I ran away from Annabeth and Thalia, back in San Francisco... and I did that again, here."

"I don't need your backstory-"

"But I want you to listen. I want to know that I helped prevent someone from doing the same thing I did. I want to prove to myself that I'm not going to run away anymore," he said, going back to wiping my face. He looked at me and his mouth twitched, as if he was keeping a smile. "You were acting like a jealous douche."

"Yeah? Here we are. The jealous douche and the cheating bastard." We smiled grimly.

"Just...go after her okay?" He asked. "The way things ended between you two was wrong."

"Not as wrong as yours."

"It's not about me here," he smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

Riiiiiiinnnngggg! I glanced at my phone. Grover. The thought slammed me. How many people were there? Who had there phones out? Is it on the news?

Annabeth's POV

"-beth? Annabeth? Annabeth!"

I looked at Mark. I still had a damp towel pressed against his bleeding face. Shaking myself off from distraction, I went back to gently wiping his face.

By habit, my free hand went up to my neck, where the locket was. The earlier events started to rush back to me. Percy assumed that I was cheating on me. He knew that I wouldn't do that, yet he believed a picture Rachel had sent him. Rachel of all people. He doubted me.

When a couple decides to go for long-distance relationship, trust is the key. Percy had none. Communication was a fail, too. Everything in the relationship had taken a turn. The essential things in a relationship are lost, except for love. But love, can be overpowered, if trust is not present.

As I was in deep thought, a hand circled around my wrist, stopping me from my task. Mark looked at me with worry. "Annabeth... I didn't mean to step in between you two. If there is anything I could do to help, I'm here."

I gave a small smile. "It's not your fault. Percy and I... It's for the better."

He looked at me, unconvinced. Tears started to form, when the realization started to hit me harder than it already did. I'm leaving for San Francisco this week. There is no way Percy and I can talk this one through. I'm not even sure if I want to talk to him. Future first. Career first. Success first.

Soon, my eyes started to bawl, and Mark had led me to the couch. He rubbed soothing circles on my back, while I was furiously wiping my face with the back of my hand.

"Ms. Chase?" The teleprompter next to the elevator door rang.

"Yes?" I weakly said.

"Someone would like to see you. It's Piper McLean," he said.

"Bring her up, please."

-

"Okay, I'm an expert at this," Piper said. "You want ice cream? A box of tissues? We can watch a romcom?"

I smiled weakly at her attempt. Her face drooped, and she came for a hug. Mark had left, after Piper had given glares and threatened to drag him put, if he didn't leave. I told her the things that happened before the fight. I had asked her how she knew to come here. She had taken out her phone and showed me that Percy and Mark's fight had made it into the trending list on Twitter.

"Horror movie?" She asked. I nodded.

About halfway through the movie, I barely knew what was happening. I kept finding myself distracted and playing with the locket.

"How are you not fazed by anything in this movie?!" Piper exclaimed, clutching a blanket.

"Uh... Horror movies are too predictable," I calmly replied.

She sighed. "I know that Percy was an ass, but he misunderstood. And you... were too prideful to say 'it's fine, you were misunderstood'."

"It's both of our fault-"

"And my mom! She had freaked out, when she saw it. She started yelling at the phone scre-"

"Can we not talk about it, for now?" I pleaded.

She nodded. "Right, of course. No Percy talk."

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I did change the book cover! Thank you horriblecalum for making it for me! I'm obsessed with the new cover. I hope you like the new cover.

Thank you for reading this chapter! I love the support all of you give this book. I hope all of you stay until the very end because it is almost here.

I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS (except Mark and David) AND THE PICTURE OF THIS CHAPTER.

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-Brainy_dolphin<3